Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

This conversation is moderated according to USA TODAY's
community rules.
Please read the rules before joining the discussion.

With Germain Ifedi struggling, Seahawks will give George Fant a chance at right tackle

Gregg Bell, The News Tribune
Published 10:30 a.m. PT Aug. 22, 2018

Seattle Seahawks linemen George Fant, left, and Germain Ifedi squares off during a drill earlier this month at training camp in Renton. The Seahawks will give Fant, who previously played left tackle, a chance to displace Ifedi at right tackle.(Photo: Ted S. Warren, AP)

More likely, they’d seen enough of the pass-protection issues — and enough of George Fant’s return from reconstructive knee surgery last August to believe he’s ready to compete at right tackle.

Fant, the former college basketball power forward who was the starting left tackle as an undrafted rookie in 2016, moved to right tackle for the first time Tuesday in practice. He played on the right side with the second-team offense in two sessions while struggling starter Germain Ifedi remained with the first-team offense.

The long-awaited move of Fant, which Carroll and general manager John Schneider first mentioned in March, comes almost four weeks after Seattle started training camp and 2½ weeks before the season opener, Sept. 9 at Denver.

“George has had kind of a startling career, really, to come so far, so fast. There’s nothing that we’ve put in front of him that he didn’t handle," Carroll said. "Even when you take a look at the rehab process (for the knee) that he went through, he just totally competed and attacked it and came back in great shape.”

Ifedi was a glaring problem in 2017, his first season at right tackle. Seattle’s first-round draft choice in 2016 led the NFL in penalties. He had nine false starts, often trying to get a jump on snaps to keep up with faster edge pass rushers. He had eight flags for holding those rushers when he couldn’t sustain blocks.

Carroll has stated that Ifedi must cut down on his penalties, and he has done that so far this month. Ifedi has not been penalized in seven offensive drives he and Seattle’s starting offense have played through two preseason games.

One of those times, in the red zone in the first quarter, Ingram sacked Wilson for a 2-yard loss that forced a field goal. Another time, Ifedi getting beaten forced Wilson to scramble around his missed block and throw into coverage in the end zone to Nick Vannett. That pass got knocked away to force another Seahawks field goal instead of touchdown.

That was partly why Seattle’s starters gained 228 yards in the first half but produced just two field goals in what became a 24-14 defeat.

“It was a good battle. He’s a helluva player,” Ifedi said of Ingram after the game. “There’s a couple (of plays) I wanted back. But I thought overall it was a good battle.”

Ingram has 29 sacks the last three seasons. He is approaching the caliber of pass rusher that the Seahawks will face in the opener: Broncos All-Pro and Super Bowl MVP edge rusher Von Miller.

“He did some good stuff, and he got in trouble a couple of times on things,” Carroll said Tuesday of Ifedi against the Chargers and Ingram. “He’s cleaned up some things in his game that I’m happy about, and I’m hoping that will continue; I think it will.”

Ifedi, the 31st pick in the 2016 draft, was a right tackle at Texas A&M but debuted at right guard in his rookie season.

Fant also joined the Seahawks in 2016, but was the opposite of a first-round pick. Not only did he not get drafted, he had not started a football game on an offensive line since he was playing for the Pee Wee Lincoln Heights Tigers when he was growing up in Cincinnati.

Before the Seahawks signed him as an undrafted free agent, he thought he might be headed to Poland to play professional basketball.

Then Carroll and the Seahawks became enamored with Fant’s athleticism, size (6-feet-5, 322 pounds), basketball-quick feet and raw potential. In one of the most remarkable out-of-nowhere stories of that NFL season, Fant started 10 games to finish the 2016 season at left tackle. He would have started there last season, too, if not for the knee injury.

“It’s been a long road,” Fant said upon returning to fully practicing this month. “It’s been hard. It was tough. I had good days, bad days. I’m just looking to come full circle.

“It’s just a blessing being out here.”

Fant was asked if there was ever a point while Seattle’s 2017 played on without him, with him grinding through lonely drills with trainers, that he thought his recovery wasn’t going to work out.

“Yeah,” he said. “Multiple times.

“That’s what you go through. There are ups and downs through this whole thing. People kept telling me there were ups and downs, and I was telling them, ‘Aw, I’m not going to have any downs.’ But there’s just stuff that you don’t expect to happen that happens. But through it all, my wife, my kids and my family got me through it, kept me leveled. Kept pushing me to keep working hard.”

After losing Fant last summer, the Seahawks traded for veteran Duane Brown in October. He signed a three-year contract extension, so Fant’s path to playing left tackle is blocked.

But right tackle? The opportunity door just swung wide open.

Carroll said Ifedi “knows we think a lot of George Fant. He knows we have a high opinion of what he’s capable of doing.

“And we’ve thought this through,” Carroll said, adding Isaiah Battle is also in the competition at right tackle returning from a recent injury.

Of Fant in particular, Carroll said: “He’s ready to go ... We think he’s ready to compete at this spot. That was what we had in mind the whole time.”

George Fant is fully recovered from knee surgery that cost him the 2017 season. After starting at left tackle during his rookie season, the Seahawks will give him a look at right tackle for the remainder of preseason practice.(Photo: John Cordes, AP)